Murders in Huntsville - Update

(Birmingham, Alabama) Last week, former university professor Amy Bishop pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder involving two or more people and three counts of attempted murder during a hearing in Huntsville.

The prosecution seeks life without parole for the capital murder charge and a life sentence for each attempted murder charge.

Meanwhile there is news regarding the alleged 1986 killing by Amy Bishop of her brother, Seth Bishop.

After Bishop was indicted, prosecutors said Braintree police in 1986 failed to share important evidence, including the fact that Bishop, after she shot her brother in the chest, tried to commandeer a getaway car at gunpoint at a local car dealership, then refused to drop her gun until police officers ordered her to do so repeatedly. Those events were described in Braintree police reports but not in a report written by a state police detective assigned to the district attorney's office.

Larry Tipton, Bishop's lawyer in the Massachusetts case, said it will be up to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey to decide whether to put Bishop on trial for murder in her brother's killing, now that she has pleaded guilty in Alabama. David Traub, a spokesman for Morrissey, said prosecutors will wait until after sentencing to decide what to do in the Massachusetts case.

Sentencing in the Alabama case is scheduled for September 24.

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Murders in Huntsville
[Previous 2/14/10 post]
(Huntsville, Alabama) Encapsulated, here's the latest on a well-publicized story.

The neurobiologist accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, on Friday fatally shot her brother in 1986 in suburban Boston, and the police there are now questioning whether they mishandled that case when they let her go without filing charges.

Early Saturday, the police in Huntsville charged the neurobiologist, Amy Bishop (45), with capital murder in the shootings during a faculty meeting that also left three people wounded. Bishop, who appeared to have had a promising future in the biotechnology business, had recently been told she would not be granted tenure, said university officials.

On Saturday afternoon, police in Braintree, Massachusetts, announced that Bishop had fatally wounded her brother, Seth Bishop, 24 years ago in an argument in their home, which The Boston Globe first reported on its website. The police were considering reopening the case, in which Bishop was not charged and the case records were no longer available, said Paul Frazier, the Braintree police chief.

The story continues to develop. One element being investigated is what caused the rare occurrence of an apparent female spree/serial killer.